Carbon Reservoirs
This reservoir contains carbon dioxide gas, which plants use for photosynthesis.
What is the atmosphere?
These two processes are opposites: one takes carbon from the air into plants, the other releases it back.
What are photosynthesis and respiration?
These two human activities rapidly release carbon stored in trees back into the atmosphere.
What are deforestation and forest fires?
Human disruption of the carbon cycle has led to this global environmental issue.
What is climate change?
These three long-term reservoirs store the largest amount of carbon:
What are fossil fuels, limestone/sediments, and the ocean?
When living things die, this process recycles carbon back to the atmosphere and soil.
What is decomposition?
These two human activities release long-stored carbon from fossil fuels into the atmosphere.
What are burning fossil fuels and transportation?
These living organisms store organisms for shorter periods.
What are land and marine plants (producers), animals (consumers), and decomposers?
This process stores carbon away long-term in rocks, while this one moves carbon between the atmosphere and the ocean.
What are compaction and diffusion?